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The first time I watched L.A. Confidential, I had never seen Russell Crowe or Guy Pearce before. Their American accents were so perfect. I had no idea that they're both Australian! Later, when I heard them interviewed and listened to their normal Aussie accents, I was doubly impressed with their acting ability!
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Hi joan, my favourite is james mason. To hear him doing a chinese accent in Genghis Khan - you just wouldnt know he wasnt a native!
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Damian Lewis sounds very American, and he's British !
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Cate Blanchett does a very good English accent. There was some American actress in a film i watched recently who did a prefect English accent, i just can't recall who it was, but i was well impressed. In Game of Thrones some of the Scottish actors do good northern English accents, though they're not exactly specific to a town or city, they sound convincing enough.
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Two names leapt immediately to (my) mind, the first being Hugh Laurie as House -- but then, it's often been said that as a general rule Brits are more successful at portraying Americans than vice versa. Obviously, as with any rule, there are exceptions, (such as Renee Zellweiger's lovelorn Bridget Jones). The second name that occurs to me is Robert Mitchum, who had a genuine gift for a variety of accents, none of which had he ever formally studied. (For openers, see THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and CAPE FEAR, among many other southerner roles, THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER, and RYAN'S DAUGHTER.) His HUNTER director, Charles Laughton, told Esquire magazine about the time he expressed to Mitchum his trepidation at the prospect of playing southern Senator Seeb Cooley in ADVISE AND CONSENT. "I told him, 'Bob, it's as if you had to play a Cockney.' He answered me in a perfect Cockney accent, 'You bull-necked son of a bitch, what makes you think I can't play a Cockney?'"
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I always admired Peter Sellers' ability to do accents, both broadly and more realistically, and always sound right for the role (from farce to drama) and not just a Brit put-on. He knew when to play it up and when to pull it back. His flat American accent in Being There is such an important aspect of his affectless speech as Chance the Gardener, a role I find deeply troubling (and wonderful). John Lithgow does excellent comic-opera accents when called for - Southern in Obsession, Italian in Buckaroo Banzai, British in Cliffhanger, etc. I'm a little surprised I'm the first to mention Christian Bale - even to doing his American accent for press junkets for the Dark Knight movies. I'm to the point I'm not sure what his real accent even is.
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Carroll O'Connor could do a terrific English accent. And Al Pacino did the absolute best fake Cuban accent. Not sure which accent Pacino used, but it was everything except Cuban
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